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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Tomorrow is the first day of a new year, a fresh start.
Resolutions? Mostly the same as I have made before. Better posture. Take my
vitamins. Make more art. Be good to those I love, and to strangers, too.

New Year’s Eve. Tonight takes me back to New Year’s Eve
fourteen years ago. At midnight, as 1999 turned to 2000, Hubby and I became
engaged. Quite a bit has changed since then but he still makes me laugh every
day. He’s still my go-to dude when it comes to calamities big and small (and
mine always seem big!). New Year’s Eve fourteen years ago involved a party, friends,
and staying up past midnight to ring in the new year. This New Year’s Eve is
almost identical. Oh, except that we have three wiggly little ones bouncing off
the ceilings. And we’re not at a party (although it sounds as loud as one
around here, and that’s just on a regular night). And I’m not wearing a cute
outfit. And I probably won’t stay up until midnight. And I’m not in my 20s
anymore. (Aw, shucks). Or my 30s anymore. (Breathe. Do not panic. Just
breathe.) But otherwise it’s exactly the same.

A neighbor a few blocks away put up this festive message.
They always decorate and I love their spirit.

No, I’m not among the throngs at Times Square, waiting for the ball to drop. But I’m ready for you, 2014. A fresh new year with lots of potential.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Me again. Back, 15 minutes later. Very happy to report that I
did find the gift cards. How’s this for a crazy hiding place? They were with a
stack of gifts I have yet to wrap. But they were hiding behind things and I
really can’t say I remember putting them there. It is reassuring to know that I
chose a logical spot. Not so reassuring to know that I couldn’t remember
putting them there! Oh well. I’ll blame it on Christmas brain.

“Christmas brain”: A condition occurring when one has
been highly busy in the pre-Christmas season, resulting in forgetfulness and
general confusion. Although not a contagious condition passed by germs, it
afflicts adults in December, occasionally leaking into the first week of
January, due to exhaustion.

You know your Christmas brain is getting worse when you
realize in the last hours of Christmas Eve that you cannot find two gifts you
intend to give the following day. You’ve looked in the spots you think are
likely. You look under piles of miscellaneous stuff. You decide not to panic.
There’s plenty of time to find them. Three hours until bedtime. Plenty of time.
You consider panicking just a little, since it’s been less than 24 hours since
you bought these gifts. Instead, you try to take deep, calming breaths. You
know they are in the house. (You choose not to dwell on the fact that this only
slightly narrows the search.)

For weeks you’ve been extra, extra busy with Christmas
stuff. You’ve been helping Santa. You’ve sent cards. You’ve written many to do lists,
revised them, and written more. You’ve shopped, boosting the national economy.
You’ve glued, sealed and taped. You’ve hidden gifts, and you always knew where
they were. Until now. The missing presents are two gift cards, mere millimeters
thick, and they could be hiding anywhere. Since you’ve looked in the two most
obvious spots, you consider whether to look in unlikely spots. There’s no way you would have hidden gift cards in
the toilet tank or the freezer, but in cases like this you consider looking in
implausible spots such as those, because your Christmas brain may have led you
to make strange choices. (You know a hiding place is good when you have successful
hidden it from yourself.)

You admonish yourself for taking a blogging break when you should
be hunting for hidden treasures. But after a moment’s consideration you nod to
yourself, understanding that taking a soothing break will help you focus when
you do resume the search.

You square your shoulders, and prepare to continue the hunt.
If Santa can find his way through the snow, surely you can find two gift cards
playing hide-and-seek. I think I can…I think I can…I think I can…

I want to share a darling drawing by our middle child, who
loves art. It’s a religious scene, through the eyes of someone almost
7-years-old. Usually I don’t get into religion with people. I find it a very
personal subject, not one up for public debate. I don’t want to be on the receiving
end of religious speeches, nor am I interested in giving them. But this art
work is so adorable, and captures a child’s innocence, so I will share it. As a
side note, one of my favorite parts about kids’ art is that kids often don’t
worry about the end result. They make art because they have a need to create.
They aren’t worried about perspective, shading or realism, so the pure joy they
have in creating shines through. They are spontaneous and passionate in the doing,
rather than self-conscious about the final outcome.

I love the details: the animals, the angel, Mary's eyelashes. How cute to see the big gold trophy the king brings for the baby!

As a child I drew for hours each day, and it was my biggest love. These days I sometimes get lost in the doing but other times I’m too focused on whether the outcome will be realistic enough or _____ enough. This preoccupation takes away from the freedom to just do. When I see art by kids I see their bliss. The beauty of their art is in their freedom. I love their joy.

Monday, December 23, 2013

A few nights ago I discovered a mural with lots of
personality. It’s not far from where we live, but it’s on a street I rarely
take and so this was the first time I’d seen it. I was delighted and made a
note to circle back during daylight hours.

I’d noticed this property before. Well, in honesty, not the
house itself. I couldn’t pick it out of a lineup. But they have a darling
little vintage car that I had noticed before. When we drove by a few nights ago I
saw that the car was still there and that someone had painted a mural to
showcase it. Hurray!

A day or two later I returned to the scene and walked right
up to the fence. I love that someone wanted to personalize their fence this
way. The bright primary colors appeal to me. A real orange tree growing in the
back yard is painted in the mural, which adds to the playful feel of the mural.
The little yellow jewel of a car is depicted of the mural, which is charming.
The car is a Metropolitan Nash and I’m not certain about the year but I’m
making an educated guess of 1960 (based on photos of the 1960 Nash body style).

Finding surprises in my own neighborhood is such fun. My
discovery this week brought together several things I like: vintage cars,
murals, and personalizing your space. Fences can be quite mundane, so it really
makes my day when I see one that doesn’t fade into the background but becomes a
canvas that brightens the neighborhood. Fence makeover: now that’s an art form!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

In case you’ve been in a turkey-induced nap since
Thanksgiving, I’ll state the obvious: it’s Dec. 21. It’s the winter solstice
and The Big Day is only 4 days away. Christmas. Perhaps I should be tackling
the rest of my To Do list right now, rather than whipping up another blog post.
But I’ve been a slave to the To Do list for a few weeks and I really need a
blogging break.

The Winter Solstice: the shortest day of the year. This is
unfortunate as this is the season when I need longer days, more daylight, and
the energy of all of Santa’s elves to get my To Do list done. (The upside is
that as of tomorrow, the days will be longer. The increase in the minutes of
daylight won’t be very noticeable but I find comfort in knowing that there is
potential for my brain to stay awake longer! I have a (possibly naïve) hope
that this will make our school mornings more manageable. Let’s just say our
mornings have gotten harder and more chaotic as the days have become shorter. The
kids have not bounced out of bed before school, eyes wide open, limbs jumping
into clothes. Mornings are frantic, no matter how much I prepare the night
before by setting out clothes and making lunches. So maybe the slightly longer
days starting tomorrow will make life easier around here. A girl can dream,
right?

Part of our morning trouble is because of me. I hit the
snooze button on my alarm clock a minimum of three times. Sometimes more. But
life has been extra busy lately and I’m tired. I’ve been moonlighting as one of
Santa’s elves. Sure, the elves are experts at preparing for Christmas but I
suppose even they need a hand sometimes. Even they feel the time crunch when
Thanksgiving is later than usual, as it was this year. The pre-Christmas season
was condensed this year and elves (official as well as volunteer elves, like
me) are feeling the pressure.

Part of surviving this busy season is taking breaks, even
when you have too much to do. On my daily walks I enjoy looking around the
neighborhood, seeing the different ways people decorate and personalize the
season. Here are some of the ways our neighbors are showing their spirit:

These
are Christmas cacti, which I think are beautiful:

Well, my break time is probably over. Back to Santa’s
workshop I go. The head elf is depending on me to make 248 toy boats before
midnight, and I’m a little behind. Don’t tell the big guy in red!

Monday, December 9, 2013

I’m reminiscing about my next-door neighbor Cecil, and
the friendship we had. I have some wind chimes that were Cecil’s, and when the
breeze makes music with the chimes, I think of him.

Three years ago Cecil passed away. I knew it was coming
as he was in his eighties and his health was declining. But I was still sad to
hear the news. After Cecil passed on, I wrote a blog post about him. He was a
kind neighbor for seven years, and I think of him when I see my Yucca plants,
which were daughter plants of his Yucca trees.

Cecil was from Georgia, a place I associate with front
porch chats and leisurely visits. Although Cecil didn’t have a front porch, he
always welcomed visitors. I sat in his living room many times, chit-chatting
while my babies crawled around on his floor. We talked about his growing up on
a watermelon farm. Cecil moved to San Diego for the Navy and told me what the
city was like half a century ago. We chatted about kids and friendship and
life. He talked about his pet turtle that lived outdoors under the house. More
than a few times Cecil said, “Oh, you just missed the turtle. He came out and
got some sun for a while.” I believed that the pet was real but I wondered if
I’d ever see him. Apparently turtles do not keep to a schedule, so a sighting
is nearly as rare as running into the queen at the pharmacy. Finally, I spotted
him one day. The turtle didn’t do any tricks for me, but I was glad to see him
with my own eyes at last. I’d waited six or seven years!

Cecil was part of what I liked about our neighborhood.
Like others on the block, he’d lived in his house since shortly after it was
built in the mid-1950s. He became good friends with others who had lived on the
block for decades. I found that so charming. I liked joining a neighborhood
where people knew their neighbors well, and were friends.

When Cecil passed he left a house full of furniture and
household items. His sons lived far away and I wondered if or when they would
sort through the house. Probate issues took time to resolve and a few months
passed. One day I was shocked to hear a loud crash as a truck delivered a metal
dumpster into the driveway next door. A crew started to clear the house of
belongings. It bothered me that the entire house was emptied so quickly and
unceremoniously. They weren’t taking Cecil from me but it still felt
uncomfortable to watch my friend’s belongings thrown into a dumpster, all signs
of his time in that house erased.

Soon, more changes
came. Investors walked down the driveway, examining the exterior. The house was
stripped down to its studs. Concrete was poured, the house was expanded a few
feet, and interior walls were reconfigured. I snuck in one day to make peace
with the changes while there was still some evidence of Cecil’s having lived
there. I’d only seen a few rooms of Cecil’s house before and in a room I hadn’t
seen, I discovered the original wallpaper from Cecil’s sons’ room. I was
touched that the original wallpaper remained so long after his sons outgrew
the room. I took photos of the print, a playful design that made me feel I'd walked onto the 1950s set of Leave it to Beaver.

Just as quickly as work began next door, it stopped. For
months, there was no activity. Finally, things started happening again. Stucco
was applied, and new sod was laid in back. The remodel was complete. Although
Cecil’s house had needed a lot of TLC, I was a bit sad to see so much change
because it didn’t look like Cecil’s house anymore. But the newer version was
well-maintained and no longer a fixer-upper. Another good facet of the change felt
like a gift directly from Cecil: a friendly new neighbor moved in next door.
She was easy to talk with, cheerful. If we had to lose Cecil, I felt our new
neighbor was a wonderful addition to the neighborhood. It felt as though Cecil
had chosen a terrific neighbor for us, and I’m grateful for that. I think a
neighborhood should be a place where people feel a bond with those who live
nearby. In our neighborhood, people become friends with one another. We borrow
things and lend things. We look out for one another. Our “new” neighbor has
been here for more than a year and a half now, and she is a great addition. By
coincidence, our new neighbor’s name starts with “C,” as Cecil’s did. I like
that serendipity.

Who really knows whether Cecil guided our new neighbor to
our street? Maybe it is coincidence, but I like to think Cecil had a hand in
it. Maybe our new neighbor was simply attracted to this kind of neighborhood:
one where people want connection, and are down-to-earth, where they walk their
dogs and greet passers-by.

I feel fortunate that I have a kind neighbor next-door
and before that, another great neighbor in Cecil. Change is sometimes hard but
it can be a gift in disguise. Recently, there has been a lot of change on our
street. In the last six months, six houses have sold. Our street only has 24
houses on it so you really notice that much change. I was sad to see elderly
neighbors move to assisted living, and other families leave the area. But I’m
trying to embrace the new, even if I miss what was. There is new life on our
block. I’m making a point to welcome the new neighbors. Maybe I can be to the
new neighbors who Cecil was to me.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

(This week marks exactly
three years since a coincidence of timing led to a beautiful moment. I wrote
the story below three years ago, and then I couldn’t find where I saved it!
These days I’m more organized about where I file my stories on the computer. But
in retrospect, I like that I’m posting this piece three years after I wrote it.
It gives me more perspective on the events that took place.)

Originally
written in Dec. 2010:

Have you ever witnessed a coincidence that seemed
too significant to write off as happenstance? Recently something happened that
I’m still mulling over in an attempt to understand it.

It was my birthday and I was outside, hanging up the
wind chimes that Hubby had given me. From next door I heard another set of wind
chimes, not the subtle sound they make when a breeze barely moves them, but a
loud sound. The house next door has sat empty for two months, so sounds from
that property make me take notice. The chimes kept hitting one another, as
though they were being moved by someone. It took me only a second to decide
what to do. I walked next door and called through the screen at the front door.
A man I didn’t know answered and I asked about the chimes. He said they were
available, and I took them back to my place and hung them up.

Three months ago the man next door passed away. His
name was Cecil, and he was in his eighties. He'd lived in his house for fifty years, and we were friends as well as neighbors. Recently there have
been people cleaning out his house. I knew it had to happen, but it made me a
bit sad to see his furniture thrown abruptly into a dumpster. As I stood at his
door, looking into the bare living room, the emptiness was startling. The day
before I’d thought of asking the crew if I could have a table from Cecil’s
house. As an artist, I like painting furniture to make it unique, but after some
thought I decided not to ask. I’m trying to downsize, and I also didn’t need an
object in order to remember Cecil.

Today, as I took the trash out front, I ran into two
of the men cleaning out Cecil’s house. We chatted a minute and they seemed
friendly. Maybe that is what led me to go next door less than an hour later,
when I heard those chimes. In that hour the two men had left or gone to lunch
and someone else was working outside. I told him I’d heard the chimes and asked
if he’d taken them down as part of the clean-up effort. He said yes, and I
asked if I could have them.

I returned home with them, and installed them near
my other sets of chimes. The sound they make is not like any of the other wind
chimes I have. It’s a beautiful, high sound. There had been a stained-glass
clipper ship at the top of Cecil’s chimes, but the ship had broken off of the
chimes when they’d been thrown away. This didn’t bother me and the chimes still
worked.

It seemed so significant to me that I heard Cecil’s
chimes as I hung up the beautiful new chimes from my husband. I hadn’t been
outdoors yet that day and I was only outside for three minutes as I hung my new
chimes. It seems so amazing to me that Cecil’s old chimes were moved during
that brief period of time when I was outside and could hear them. It may have
been coincidence that led to my hearing and asking for those chimes. Or maybe
it somehow was a birthday gift from Cecil. Either way, each time a breeze blows
through our yard I smile. Hubby’s new chimes contrast with Cecil’s old ones and
my other sets, each like a member of an orchestra making music together. Music
is a gift, and friendship is a gift. As I hear Cecil’s chimes, I remember him
and I feel his friendship still. I’m glad we were neighbors as well as friends.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Music heals.
I’m hardly the first human being to draw this conclusion. But when you
experience the healing first-hand, it feels like your own discovery. Last night
I played piano for a little while. I hadn’t played much in the last few years,
and it felt really good.

Even close
friends reading this may be surprised to learn that I have a piano and that I
know how to play a little. It doesn’t come into conversation much. Art is a
bigger passion for me. But music has always been a piece of my history, too.

My dad’s
father was a pianist, and his mom an organist. My mom and her sisters all
played guitar at one point, and all of them sing. When I was a child I began
piano lessons in first grade. I still remember my piano teacher, Mrs. Schaefer.
We still have the books of piano songs she gave us, with her distinctive hand-written
notes in pencil in the margin.

It’s been nearly
thirty years since I stopped taking lessons. I took them for five years, and I’m
trying to remember why I stopped. I guess I didn’t want to learn harder pieces!
I’m so lucky that my parents saved the piano books from my single-digit years.
There are pages of sheet music with notes I drew at age nine or ten: notes as
round and full as balloons, the marks of a young child. I feel such nostalgia
as I look at those notes. It’s an instant trip back in time.

I’m still
marveling at how much peace I felt playing the piano last night. I lost myself
in the music, and forgot about the birthday I’ve been dreading. The piano
connects me to the child I was. Making music is something you can do at any
age, and perhaps this is why I felt such peace as I sat with my hands on the keys.
I’m feeling and looking a little older, which is hard to accept, but the piano
doesn’t notice the laugh lines around my eyes or the gray hair stubbornly
elbowing its way into my brown locks.

All year I’ve
been struggling with a way to accept turning forty. Friends who are older say
it’s no big deal, but while I appreciate their support, their reassurances didn’t
show me how to accept something I
have trouble accepting. (I suppose no one can provide a recipe for how to
accept something. Acceptance is something that can’t be found by following a
series of steps. There’s no one formula for accepting something hard. But
still. I needed a guide!)

All year I’ve
wondered how to accept this milestone and all it includes. In the last week or
so I’ve become a little more accepting of it. And last night, as I sat down at
the piano and tried playing a few songs, something came to me. Music could help
me cross this bridge into my 40s.

Piano as the catalyst to a peaceful transition? This really took me by surprise. I thought I was supposed to
accomplish certain tangible goals before forty. Forty became the deadline, and
I felt pressure to accomplish things. I suppose it’s quite hard to feel peace
about a milestone if you are spending time and energy trying to achieve things
before the giant, ticking clock rings its ear-splitting alarm. So no, I didn’t
feel anything close to peace as I eyed this looming day. I had no clue about
how to make peace with it. It didn’t occur to me that peace might find me.

As I sat at
the piano last night, slowly picking my way through a few songs, I felt good.
Even when I hit incorrect notes. Even though I was slow. Even though the piano hasn’t
been tuned in years.

To people who
pick up an instrument every week or every day, like my musician friend Ed, it
must seem strange that it took me so long to realize that music could ease this
transition I’ve been dreading. To musical people, the power of music is
obvious. The joy of music is clear. The healing ability of music is apparent
every time they hit a note or strike a chord. For those of us who have been
away from making music for a long time, rediscovering it is like falling in
love again. It’s a surprise, an unexpected joy, to realize that music is an old
friend who is just as easy to be with after years away.

Over the
years, I occasionally sat at a piano, playing things I remembered. I learned
violin and recorder in school, and I sang in choirs in high school and college.
Music was still part of my life but it had been years since I sat at a piano regularly.

Years passed
and I nearly forgot about my parents’ piano, tucked into an unused room at their
house. I became a parent and free time for hobbies became a rare commodity. The
first two years were all about survival! One day while visiting my friend Sue,
I fiddled around on her piano a little bit and it struck me how good it felt to
play. I decided to ask my parents if Hubby and I could have the piano, since no
one used it. They said yes and we drove it from their city to ours. I played
regularly for a while but soon I had another child, and another. The piano took
a back seat to caring for babies, and I only sat down at the piano
occasionally. I decided not to have it retuned unless I was playing it more
than few times a year (which I wasn’t) so it remained untuned and unplayed.
Maybe if I’d had it tuned I might have gone back to the piano sooner but who
knows? Sometimes a break from something makes your return to it more meaningful.

I’m looking
back at the last few months, wondering when and how the pieces of this puzzle
came into place. Maybe Ed’s reconnection with music this year planted a seed in
my brain. This year my dear friend Roxie mentioned how much playing the piano
relaxes her. Another friend talked about her son’s piano lessons. These
comments must have made a subliminal impact on me. I didn’t have one Eureka
moment where I saw “music” written across the sky, a clear answer to my stress
about turning forty. But these pieces must have come together over time. At the
library a week ago I checked out a book of piano songs and I photocopied some
of them a few days ago. I’m building a little collection of songs that make me happy,
songs I want to teach myself to play. Maybe this collection of songs is the map
I’ve been seeking all year, a guide to feeling peace with my new decade. I requested
that my birthday-Christmas gift would be to get the piano tuned and I plan to
play it often.

As I creative
person, I am not shocked that making music calmed me down yesterday. But I was
surprised at how much happiness it brought
me. Scientists have studied how making art and making music promote good
health. Doing art (even if we don’t finish a project) distracts us from our
worries and it slows breathing and lowers blood pressure. I know all this to be
true when I do art projects, but it amazed
me how much making music calmed me yesterday. Relearning the piano is also a
good challenge to give myself. I’ve forgotten some of what I learned so many
years ago. I’ll be learning again, and that feels exciting.

I’m so lucky
that I grew up in a family that valued creativity. I am so fortunate that my
parents chose to pay for piano lessons instead of spending on the status
symbols that some other grownups prioritized. I’m really grateful that my
parents gave me the piano that I learned on. I’m thankful that I’ve found some
peace through piano playing. A reunion with an old friend, music, is a
wonderful way to start a new decade.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Most years I resist fall. I have to be dragged, kicking and
screaming, toward a season of shorter days and colder nights. Fall is like
the credit card bill you get after the fun of summer. Fall means back to
reality: back to school, homework, alarm clocks and colder weather. I dread
Labor Day, and I go into denial as long as possible, wearing shorts in November
and refusing reality about the diminishing long days of summer.

But this year I find myself enjoying fall more than I
expected. This year I noticed the beauty of the trees’ changing. Were the
leaves so brightly colored in previous Novembers? I can’t say. This year things
really look different to me. The colors of fall are all around and I’ve been
collecting leaves and snapping photos for weeks.

It’s Thanksgiving and I feel thankful for the people in my
life, for freedom and good health. I want to share some nature photos that
capture the brilliance of fall.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Monday, November 11, 2013

This morning while I was walking I heard a big commotion in
a tree and suddenly, to my left, something was falling out of the tree, but
WAIT!—it stopped falling and began to fly. A giant bird flapped away from the
tree, triggering a memory I have of another rustle in a tree, seven years ago.
The startling moment back then also involved a tree and an animal. But the
animal, the tree, and the country were all different.

It was 2006. We were visiting family in Canada. It was
nearly dark when Val remarked (quite calmly) that there was a bear in the tree
next to the house. SAY WHAT? Yes, a bear.

We were visiting a small Canadian town near the woods so
maybe a bear sighting should not have shocked me so much. But it did. You see,
wild animals and I do not mingle intentionally. I’m scared of my own shadow,
after all. But I joined the group for some twilight bear watching. I squinted
up into a tall tree as darkness descended, hoping the bear would not do a back
flip out of the tree, land at my feet and start nibbling me.

We city folk were in shock. The Canadians were not. Maybe this
was a nightly thing for them. For us, not so much. We took photos, but it was
nearly dark and we were trying not to scare the bear with a flash so the photo
is pretty blurry.

But I swear this really happened. I’m flattered if you think
I could imagine such a strange and vivid scene but honestly, I never would have
imagined a bear in a pear tree. Maybe a partridge
in a pear tree. Sure. I’m much more comfortable with that. A partridge is much
smaller than a bear, after all, and therefore much less scary to me. Bears are
giant, hungry, sharp-clawed and strong. No thanks. The only bears I’m willing
to get near are gummy bears.

Anyway, that’s my story for today. If anyone out there reads
this and thinks a bear in a pear tree is ho-hum, clearly you are braver than I
am. Maybe that is something you see
every day if you live in bear country. But for us city folk, that was
newsworthy.

I’ll sign off now. It’s time to head out and see if I can
find anything else unexpected: maybe Bigfoot shopping for holiday decorations.
Or the Loch Ness Monster doing laps in the bay. I’ll let you know.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Are you familiar with crayon rubbing? It’s a craft technique
also known as crayon impression or texture rubbing. I’m going to teach you how
to make unique greeting cards with textured elements.

You may associate crayons with people under the age of 10.
But let’s open up the fun to those of all ages. I find using crayons to be an
instant trip to happiness. Crayons are so colorful, easy to use and inexpensive.
They also allow you to make something quickly
because there is no dry time.

Many people profess not to be creative, but I think they
underestimate themselves. Crayon rubbings are fun and you do not have to be a
professional artist to do them. No one is pressuring you to recreate
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel! Get yourself some crayons and paper and don’t be
afraid. Just give it a try!

Things you will need:

1.Blank note cards or card stock (paper that is
thicker than regular paper)

2.Envelopes for your note cards

3.Scissors

4.Glue

5.Crayons

6.An assortment of household items that have a
raised design (simple is fine—see below)

If you are using a sheet of cardstock instead of a
pre-folded blank card, cut your cardstock so that when folded, it will fit into
your envelope.

Next, walk around your home and look for everyday items that
have raised texture that will create impressions. The texture needs to be
somewhat rigid. (For example, the bristles on a toothbrush are textured but
they are too flexible for this technique, and you won’t get a clear impression
when you rub.) I found it fun to walk from room to room and spot things that
would make interesting impressions.

Here are some household items I used to make impressions:

·Buttons

·Rick rack

·Tread on the bottom of a shoe

·A corrugated tin can

·The fake snakeskin on my wallet

·Legos

·The
tines of afork

Once
you start looking, you’ll notice that there are many everyday things that have
texture. Metal items give particularly good results as the metal is firm and
the impression will be quite clear. Here are a tin can and the grate from our
coffee maker. Both have raised and lowered parts, which will make clear
impressions.

Get some plain paper and place a sheet over the item with
the texture. Use your crayon to color the area above your textured item. Hold your item in place with one hand while coloring
with your other hand.

TIP: The harder you press while coloring, the darker
the texture will be and the more contrast you will see between the high and low
parts of the texture.

TIP: If you are rubbing crayon over a pattern with a
direction, color in the opposite direction. In other words, if your textured
item has lines running up and down, color from left to right. This will make
the texture show up much better.

TIP: There is no right or wrong to this technique.
Whichever colors you like are fine. Experiment! Some items I used (like
buttons) did not pick up the texture as well as I expected. Oh well. Try
something else.

TIP: If you like how a rubbing has turned out,
consider layering another color on top of it. Turn your paper a bit so that the
impression from the first crayon will not match up perfectly with the
impression from your second crayon. This will be a more visually interesting
effect. Here are the results of my impressions using the corrugated side of tin
can. On the left, I pressed down on my crayon with more force. The result is a
darker look. On the right, I did not press as hard and I left a little white
space, which makes a lighter effect.

The next photo shows how different
patterns and colors created a variety of effects.

When you have an assortment of rubbings (at least six, but
why stop there?), pick several for your first greeting card. I decided to make
a flower so I began cutting petals out of my rubbings. Here is how it looked
when I had my pieces cut out:

I lay my pieces on my cardstock and tried a few
arrangements. When I was happy with how things looked, I got a glue stick and
glued each piece in place. Try to get a uniform layer of glue so that each
piece sticks well to the card. (Of course, let’s avoid having rivers of glue
run down the card. Universal rule of using glue: don’t use too little, but
don’t use too much, either!) Here’s my finished card:

Here is a card I did using only three pieces of textured
coloring. I made hearts in three sizes, and layered them on top of each other.
It’s a simple design but cute and will brighten someone’s day.

My last experiment was a thank you card. I used blue cardstock and picked out eight different patterns and colors, but all with a blueish look. I cut out the letters and placed them on my card before gluing them down. Once I was happy with the layout, I glued the letters down. I decided to outline each letter so that the overall message stood out from the background a little bit more.

Creativity does need not be expensive or involve
unusual tools. The only ingredient you need is the desire to try.

Total cost: $3.

·crayons and glue (free, because I already had them)

·cardstock and blank greetings cards: $3 for 10
cards.

Wouldn’t you like to send people hand-made cards with fun
patterns on them? If you start now, you can make them in time to send out in
December. It does not take long to make a one-of-a-kind card but the personal
touch means a lot to the recipient. Have fun!

Monday, November 4, 2013

In the dark I slowly cracked one eyelid open. I’d heard an
odd noise. Was I dreaming? No. It was real. It was a loud hum. Our fridge? I
peeked out the window to see if our neighbor was using power tools before
sunrise. He is doing an overhaul on the house. But in the dark? Nope, nothing
outside. Groggily, I zombie-walked out of the room to investigate.

Soon I found my answer. The noise was coming from our son’s
room. I picked my way into the room, wary of nighttime perils in the form of
Legos on the floor. Several inches from his motionless head, an alarm clock was
trying in vain to wake him. It is a clock radio but it was not playing music.
It had an odd buzzy racket coming from it, the noise you hear
when a radio is not picking up a station clearly. Fumbling in the darkened
room, I tried to figure out which switch on the back turned the alarm off.Eventually I found the correct switch. The
motionless lump in the bed remained completely unaffected by the irritating
alarm static. I considered the irony of the tired parent two rooms away hearing
the alarm while the child lying less than a foot away from the alarm slept
dreamily. The point of getting him the alarm clock is so that I don’t have to work
so hard to wake him each morning. The point of getting him the alarm clock was not to wake me up—without waking him up—an
hour earlier than necessary!

The clock radio had a glowing red 6:30 on it. It was still
on Daylight Savings Time. The new time (as of yesterday) was 5:30a.m. For a moment I indulged in righteous indignation: this is the first
weekday I can enjoy getting another hour of sleep, a perk of returning to
Standard Time. I was not supposed to be woken in the dark by a confused alarm
clock. I deserved my extra hour of sleep! Pouting, I grouchily shuffled back to
bed and curled up in the warmth. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to settle
my body into a wonderful dream about elves creeping into my house and dividing the
laundry pile into five piles, which then would be whisked into the correct
rooms. I burrowed under the covers, allowing my body to relax…

I shifted. Then I kicked covers off, too warm already. I rolled
over and got into the position which gets me back to sleep 95% of the time. And
I waited. A few minutes later I opened my eyes. It was no use. There would be
no further sleep for me this morning. No fair! On principle alone I want this
hour back! Oh, I’ll survive…There are far worse injustices in the world. I hope
all of you out there relished that extra hour of sleep. Now who can I see about a
voucher for the extra hour of sleep I was hoping to enjoy?

Thursday, October 31, 2013

I’ve never been interested in the scary side of Halloween.
Leave the blood and guts to someone else. I love the playful potential of Halloween. Talking, moving ice cream cone? Now
that’s my idea of entertainment! I guess it appeals to the big kid in me.
Dressing up as food is fun. Making people laugh makes me happy.

I am wondering why I often make uncomfortable costumes. Next
year I need to remember to design something that is not so awkward. Little
things like sitting and walking are suddenly difficult when you are wearing a
tapered cotton cone. I suppose this is what is meant by suffering for one’s
art.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

I’ll let you in on a secret: I am behind in my Halloweening.
This runs contrary to my celebratory nature, so please be careful about who you
tell. I have a festive reputation to protect!

It’s been a particularly busy October in my world. My
sister’s wedding earlier this month was a big focus, as it should be. Somehow,
most of October raced by. Tomorrow is Halloween, and I’m not quite ready. I’m
getting there. A week ago I braved the store aisles stuffed with candy and
picked out a few bags. We have some decorations out front. We’ve been to two Halloween
festivals and our excitement is growing. We bought two costumes. Yesterday I
made a lot of progress on my costume. I’m nearly finished with the fourth
costume. (Hubby is going to use the same one he’s used for over a decade.) In
24 hours I need to be in costume, at a carnival. But that’s enough time for me to
finish my costume. As long as nothing unexpected crops up. (I’m tempting fate
by saying that, of course.)

All month long I’ve enjoyed the enthusiasm of some of my
neighbors, who have decorated their yards and houses for tomorrow. I’ll share a
few photos:

The photo above shows a neighbor's pumpkin
collection: one decorative foam pumpkin plus twelve carved pumpkins. They get
the spirit award around here.

The pumpkin above and the drawing below were created
by our middle child, who loves creative projects.

Well, I think I should sign off for now. I’ve taken my
blogging break and now I need to knuckle down and complete two more Halloween
costumes. There is a deadline, after all. This time crunch brings to mind a
similar time constraint Cinderella once had. She had to be home by midnight or
her ball gown would turn back to rags and her coach would become a pumpkin once
again. If I don’t wave my magic sewing needle over my supplies, the pile of
fabric I have will not turn into costumes and the pumpkins by our door will
remain squash, instead of jack-o-lanterns. I have important Halloweeny projects
to tackle. So please stop distracting me!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Are you a collector? Some people amass sizeable collections
of Pez dispensers, vinyl records, baseball cards or shoes. There are many kinds
of collections; some are used and others are purely for
decorative purposes or for sentimental value.

I have a fondness for flamingos, but I had never considered
putting them together as a collection. In truth, I didn’t consider my assortment
big enough to be called a collection. I only had a handful of flamingos. But recently I have been
thinking of ways to display my flock. I want it up on a wall so that it
functions as a piece of art, rather than taking up space on a horizontal
surface (which is quite limited around here as it is!).

Today while trying to organize my art/sewing studio I
spotted a box of paint and instantly I knew it was going to house my flock of
flamingos. I’ve been using this box for only a few months, since the Wednesday
I grabbed it off the top of a neighbor’s garbage can on trash day. It was
perfectly usable, not something that needed to go to the dump, and I saw its
potential. It was a drawer, a rather small one (maybe 9 by 14 inches, and 6 inches deep). The moment I saw it I knew I could use it.

I love repurposing something and giving it a new life. It
tickles me to use things in unexpected ways. Oh, I’m not the first person to
use an old drawer for something but I’m excited because this is my first time to give an old drawer a
new look and purpose. Plus, I’d been unsure of how to display my flamingos and
now I have a solution that is a little more imaginative than simply putting them
on a display shelf.

I took the shelf paper off the bottom of the drawer and
painted the raw wood inside the drawer. I painted it white so that the
flamingos would show up well inside the drawer. I added a shelf inside the
drawer so that I could display more flamingos. (Maybe as my collection grows I
will have to find a bigger shelf in my neighbor’s trash can!!!) I love the
effect, and I love that the idea came to me unexpectedly. Sometimes it’s good
to grab something with potential for future use. Even if you don’t know what
you’ll use it for, you’ll have it available for the moment inspiration strikes.
Here is the drawer before it reached its full potential:

Here is the drawer after I transformed it into a welcoming aviary:

Over the last week I have been making more flamingos! Once I
had a home for them, I felt an urge to add to the collection. I had all the
supplies in my craft stash, and creating these pink, wiggly-necked creatures
was made me happy. Would you like to know what I used to make the flamingos? I
was hoping you’d ask. I used fabric, tulle, felt, a shell, buttons, hot glue,
bamboo skewers, wire, pipe cleaners, paint, foam, Duck tape, parts of
ornaments, feathers, Sculpey, sequins, beads, paper clips and Shrinky Dinks.

The drawer was free, and it only took me two hours to paint,
hang and arrange my flamingos display case. No longer are the flamingos sitting
on my studio window ledge, peering down at me, wishing for their own space. My
flamingos now have a home of their own.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Just sharing some colorful fall leaves. They look like
hand painted pieces of art, with no square corners in sight. There is a watercolor
painting technique called wet on wet, which means exactly what it sounds like:
you wet your paper, then put paint onto the paper while it is still wet. The
paint feathers as it touches wet paper, and the colors create tiny streams.
It’s a beautiful effect and there’s an element of unpredictability to how
the paint will disperse. Will the edges be red? Or orange? Will the shading be
subtle, or bold? The leaves have asymmetrical coloration and each one is a
little different. The gallery is outdoors, and the paintings change daily.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

In the Spring our oldest child was required to participate
in the school’s Science Fair. The timing was serendipitous. Only a week before
I had noticed that our hummingbird feeder was becoming moldy as the weather
warmed up. The feeder is in direct sunlight but I didn’t want to change its
location because I love seeing the birds from our kitchen table. A solution
popped into my head: perhaps we could make a tiny umbrella to protect the hummingbird feeder from the warm spring sun. It might save the juice from molding, an
experiment that clearly fit the bill for the Science Fair.

We used cotton fabric from my sewing stash, bamboo skewers
(intended for Shish Kebabs, but hey, they are very versatile materials!), and
of course, my favorite adhesive: hot glue!

The umbrella came together nicely and it does its job. It
gives just enough shade so that the glass bottle of juice for the birds does not
become moldy, but the umbrella isn’t so large that it blocks the birds’ access
to the juice. It cost nothing, as we already had the supplies, and it was fun
to make.

I wish I had a photo of a bird at the feeder. I tried! I sat
at our kitchen table for a while, camera in hand, waiting for the birds to come.
Yesterday morning I’d seen a hummingbird at the feeder several times, and I
did get one photo, but it didn’t turn out well. These fast fliers stop for only
a few seconds to drink, so it’s no easy feat to capture these birds on film. I’ll
keep trying and I’ll add the photo here if I ever get one. Hummingbirds do not
believe in sitting down to digest their breakfast. Their food is always to go.

After we created our sun shade, I searched online for umbrellas
for hummingbirds. I was surprised to see that they existed. Shoot, so much for
my completely original idea! But most of the ones I found online were made of glass
or metal, with just a few made of plastic or fabric. And none had the jazzy
color scheme ours did! Hey, if hummingbirds are attracted to orange and red
flowers, isn’t an orange and yellow umbrella likely to catch their eyes, even
with their short attention spans? Of course!

I don’t consider myself scientific by nature, but sometimes
art and science join hands and the result is an invention that fills a need.
The teacher thought we did a good job, and I’m not certain, but I think I saw a
humming bird waving a wing at me in approval…